Kenya on high alert during festive season amid Al- Shabaab fears

BY CHRISPINUS OMAR AND DAVID MUSYOKA

NAIROBI, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) — Kenya’s security forces have stepped up security in all cities, towns and all entry points for possible revenge attacks following threats from the Somali militant group, Al-Shabaab during festive this season. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said security is being stepped up in all hotels and restaurants in major cities and towns, particularly along the border with neighboring Somalia where al Qaeda-linked fighters are waging an insurgency to avert reprisals.

Kiraithe said they are concerned that most public facilities have lowered their security alertness unlike two months ago when Kenya started pursuing Al-Shabaab. “The risk of Al-Shabaab staging an attack is still very high and people should not be complacent,” he told Xinhua in an interview in Nairobi on Thursday. The government has in the recent past admitted that the threat of terror attacks targeting the country remains real but has moved to assure that security personnel are on high alert.

The militia group, which is aligned to al-Qaeda network, has said before that it would attack Kenya. Last year, suspected Al-Shabaab members bombed Uganda in twin attacks that killed nearly 80 people. It said it was in retaliation for Kampala providing peacekeeping troops that have helped Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) stay in power. Kiraithe also confirmed that vital installations are guarded by security officers and round-the-clock security surveillance done by teams of specially trained officers.

Sources said elite units from different security formations have been put on high alert. The operational plan includes a guide to officers on terrorism prevention, detection and how to act in case of an emergency. New measures have resulted in the security of selected ordinary public places being upgraded, albeit temporarily, to the status known in security parlance as “vital installations.” “Vital installations such as airports, military barracks, Parliament, police stations and foreign missions in Kenya are all on high alert,” the police source said.

The last few weeks have seen Kenya suffer incursions by the Al- Shabaab militia from neighboring Somalia with heavy fighting reported near the border town of Mandera. Kenya’s border with Somalia has been officially closed since January 2007, but civilians fleeing the upsurge in fighting between the TFG and the Al-Shabaab militia in south-central Somalia have been arriving in Kenya in rising numbers. The enhanced security comes amid reports that Al-Shabaab, blamed for a series of abductions on Kenyan soil, has dispatched bomb makers and assassins to eliminate Defense Minister Yusuf Haji and National Assembly Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim.

Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia said in the letter that the suspected Al- Shabaab assassins were dispatched from Lower Juba to areas of Lagdera and Ijara, with express instructions to eliminate the two leaders. His letter did not state the exact number of assassins thought to have crossed the border into Kenya. “Similarly, the militia has dispatched some unidentified explosive experts from the Buale area of Southern Somalia to attack Habaswein and Elwak markets on undisclosed dates,” Kimemia said in the letter which was published in the local media on Thursday.

The letter dated Dec. 15 was copied to Haji and Maalim and states that the North Eastern Provincial Commissioner James Ole Serian is under firm instructions to enhance security in his region, in the wake of a series of blasts mainly targeting security agents. “Al-Shabaab appears determined to continue pursuing targets in Kenya. You should continue with security vigilance to deter infiltration and also apprise the targeted officials of the new and persisting threats,” Kimemia said. However, the defense minister told Parliament on Wednesday he would not be “intimidated or cowed by the Al Shabaab threats.”

“We have reports that the Al-Shabaab have sent militants to target us, but I want to say here that I will not be cowed from doing that which I am supposed to do to protect out territorial integrity,” Haji told Parliament. Kiraithe said state security will be accorded not only in places perceived to be under threat, but also to individuals whose lives are under threat.

“Police protection is always given to any person or even place under threat,” he said, adding that specialized anti-crime police units will be sent to Eldoret town, one of the main towns in the Rift Valley region that has been hit by high crime wave targeting local businesspeople. The police spokesman said action has already been taken in the last two months when high crime rates prevailed, including changing the local police leadership.

“The Commissioner of Police has already made command changes in the area. Yesterday, the Provincial Police Commissioner based in Nakuru town was ordered to stay temporarily in Eldoret and draw up new specific security plans. We expect to see changes soon,” he told Xinhua. “But if there is no change in the next few days, then we shall send specialized crime units to deal with the matter,” he added. The Kenya Police uses specialized anti-crime units in areas there organized criminals overwhelm the regular policing.

Such units have been active in the capital Nairobi and sections of Central region where organized crime levels are relatively higher, Police said. Eldoret Town has in the last two months experienced a wave of fatal crime incidents that local police attribute to a gang of organized criminals operating mostly at night using AK47 rifles to attack their victims. Last Monday, a businessman who owns a supermarket in town was shot dead at Cool In entertainment joint in West Indies Estate of the town. He was killed by what witnesses described as “six-heavily armed criminals” who had stolen from several homes and shops in the estate the same night. Early December, three taxi drivers and two traders were killed on different dates. Authorities have linked the robberies to a group of hardcore criminals some of home had been arrested late last month but escaped from the police cells at night.

This is the second month that the town is experiencing fatal attacks by armed thugs that have led to the transfer of senior Police officers from the area. On Nov. 10 for example, robbers shot dead another Eldoret businessman in Kip Karen Estate. The man was driving home at around 1:00 a.m. local time when the thugs accosted him about 1 km from his home on the outskirts of the town. The crime wave is similar to that happened at in the town beginning of the year when criminals raided eight hotels in three weeks, stealing from owners and patrons. (Xinhua)